So I’ve had a busy 24 hours! Changing nappies, writing, blogging…oh and upping my twitter game. There are so many different levels to this writing thing. Including but not limited to:

1. Joining writing communities, such as https://www.reddit.com/r/PubTips/, https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/ FaceBook groups and probably hundreds of other great places that I’ve not even found yet. If you know of any, let me know in the comments, please! I’d love to check them out.
2. RESEARCH. Holy cow the research. What’s popular out there in books at the moment, what sells, what doesn’t, what’s classic (but no longer interesting to Publishers and agents). What Agents, Agencies or Publishers rep your style of writing. Are they open for submissions? What to avoid with Vanity Presses, how to (and not to) self-publish. It goes on. And on. It’s a bit like a Wonderland where your TBR (to be read) pile just grows by the thousands every minute until it’s reached critical mass, self awareness and has somehow connected to the Infinite Library of the Discworld. Possibly also stolen your TV remote control. If I dared to buy even a quarter of my suddenly expanded TBR pile my wife would kill me. I’m not kidding. I could probably buy a new car for that many books. sigh…
3. Read published literary books on writing – e.g. Plot, etc. To get a solid understanding of the mechanics of writing. (Try not to freeball it unless you’re a natural, apparently! There are mechanisms and styles for a reason. Who knew?)
4. Have an internet presence for fans (and publishers/agents) to look you up. Well…tick? I definitely need to polish this place up a lot. Or get my own proper website. But I think I’ll start here and then link this up when I really get the ball rolling or I’m running before I can walk!
5. Follow established and popular writing blogs – I admit I’ve not really got dug into this yet but it could be interesting. I am expecting another rabbit hole a la Wonderland for this one.
6. Follow Agent/Agency Blogs – Again I’ve not got close yet. It’s been 24 hours and even I, who am usually dauntless, am pretty daunted. Places like https://queryshark.blogspot.com/ on how to write Queries to agents etc. Absolutely shedloads to look into here.
7. And finally…Twitter (and other social media – but currently Twitter for that is what I can comprehend). Oh boy. Twitter. I seriously have to up my Twitter Game by a LOT. Hashtags on #WritingCommunity, #WriterLift and Networking by the bucketload. Capital ‘N’ there, by the way as you can get so much support out there very easily just by following, commenting and retweeting. I’ve only just begun to dip my toe in to it all but it’s a deep, deep and intricate web that looks incredibly useful.

So yeah, it’s been a mad 24 hours. And I even got in some midnight (read: 2-4am) writing! Thanks little guy. Work on my WIP and some on a short story I came up with. Wh00t!